A few questions on iMac G3

[Apostrophe]

Hi everyone,

Okay, for those of you who have read my other post, my iMac G3 has arrived. It works great, an amazing computer, but it has no software, no Internet (as far as I know), and is password protected. Now, I did manage to guess the password for the 'student' account. The password was simply student. But needless to say, I barely have enough access privileges. I was thinking of reinstalling the OS anyway, so does anyone know where I might be able to buy a cheap copy of early Mac OS X?

Thanks,

-Apostrophe

 

[The Macster]

eBay is about the only place I can think of - don't get anything older than Panther though as the older versions of OS X are slow, buggy, and almost as bad as OS9 for modern software compatibility, especially 10.0 and 10.1. Personally I highly recommend Tiger for G3s. By the way, it should have built-in ethernet, though it could be disabled on the limited access account that you seem to have.

 

[IPNixon]

If you leave the iMac the way it is (400 MHz, 128MB, 10GB), you'll be very happy with Panther. I've used Panther on 128MB machines, and it's very nice. It's nothing compared to, say, a Mac Pro or anything, but it's not painfully slow, either.

It works very well with light internet browsing, chatting, iTunes, etc.

 

[Apostrophe]

I think The Macster's right...the iMac does have Internet Explorer, but when I tried to get it connected, it told me that I didn't have the right privileges.

But anyway, thanks for your recommendations. Say, would any version of OS X work on an iMac? Like, Leopard, for instance?

Thanks,

-Apostrophe

 

[IPNixon]

All versions of OS X from 10.0 through 10.4 (Tiger) will work. Leopard requires a G4 867MHz or higher to run.

Jaguar has run the best for me on a G3, but Panther is also very nice, as mentioned before.

 

[~tl]

Panther will give you the best mix of software compatibility and still running reasonably fast. Tiger will run at a push and is compatible with pretty much all software for OS X at the moment. However, on 128MB RAM it'll be slow... even for Panther, more RAM wouldn't hurt. You should be able to pick up a couple of 512MB modules pretty cheap since the iMac takes standard PC100 DIMMs which were common as muck a few years ago. Maxing it out to 1GB of RAM will really speed up performance no matter what version of OS X you run... basically for OS X, the more RAM the better!

As for getting a copy of the OS, eBay is probably your best bet. Apple doesn't bother with CD keys or activation like MS does with Windows, so just having the physical disks is all you need to run it and getting a copy second hand isn't a problem. If you decide to go the Tiger route, you may still be able to find some copies new... but again, you'll likely find a better deal on eBay.

Oh and one word of warning... make sure you buy the generic OS X retail disks rather than the versions that ship with new Macs. Those ones only work on the specific machine they shipped with. You can easily tell those disks since they're a grey colour with white writing and don't have the OS X logo on them. Basically this is the sort of thing you're looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250195699472

...and not this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330195719476

Hope that helps [] ]'>

Edit: One more thing... if you happen to have one of the 400MHz iMacs that has a CD-ROM drive rather than a DVD-ROM then make sure you get a copy of OS X on CD rather than DVD... obviously! Panther should be fairly easy to find on CD. Tiger is a little more rare since it only shipped on DVD, but Apple operated a DVD-CD exchange program, so it should be possible to find a set if you scour.

 

[tomlee59]

Another source is the 10.1 upgrade. It actually contains a full OS. To allow a complete install, a simple mod to the disc is all you need. Googling should reveal the procedure.

I mention this only because I regularly encounter the upgrade discs for next to nothing. Indeed, I paid zero dollars for mine.

That said. 10.1 isn't particularly attractive. 10.2 is about optimum for that mac.

 

[gobabushka]

what about resetting the password in single user mode?

 

[Apostrophe]

I don't think I can reset any passwords without administrative access. But thanks everyone, so Panther's probably my best bet...I'll start looking.

-Apostrophe

 

[30pin]

Not sure if it still works on the Imac. But on some earlier school owned Macs I picked up, I just started the Macs up with the extensions turned off. Had to hold down the control key. Then just deleted the security programs. Restarted the Macs and all was fine. Might be worth a try.

 

[bluekatt]

eBay is about the only place I can think of - don't get anything older than Panther though as the older versions of OS X are slow, buggy, and almost as bad as OS9 for modern software compatibility, especially 10.0 and 10.1. Personally I highly recommend Tiger for G3s. By the way, it should have built-in ethernet, though it could be disabled on the limited access account that you seem to have.

jaguar is stil a pretty damn good OS its gettinga bit long in tooth but stil no reason to disocunt it

if you can get a cheap copy of jaguar get it jaguar is always better then no os X at all

just be prepared to dig around for your gpl software a bit

but thats why sites like pure-mac excist

and while you are at it get more ram that particulair imac can take 1 gig

 

[~tl]

what about resetting the password in single user mode?

It's got OS 9 installed currently, so there's no single user mode...

 

[Bunsen]

PC133 RAM is also useable

 

[Apostrophe]

Thanks everyone, I'll try your suggestions.

Just one question: can iMacs turn themselves on? I distinctly remember shutting it off before I went to bed. When my alarm rang, I noticed that my whole room was bathed in blue light. Yup...the iMac was on. Not even sleep mode, it was on. It's possible that someone did it manually, but are iMacs on timers or something? Is there anything that can explain this?

-Apostrophe

 

[~tl]

It's possible to set a startup/shutdown schedule in the Energy Saver control panel, so it's possible that someone has done that.

 

[Apostrophe]

Thanks, I'll look into that. Needless to say, I don't yet have enough access to get into the control panels, but once I do, I'll take a look at the Energy Saver.

-Apostrophe

 

[SiliconValleyPirate]

My biggest gripe with using Panther over Tiger is the version of Safari in Panther is pretty slow and buggy, especially with rendering some more awkward websites.